Letterpress Poster

Letterpress Poster

Final Project

I took a 10-week letterpress class at Seattle's School of Visual Concepts, where I created a 3 color linoleum and lead type poster to be printed on a Vandercook. Creating a 3 color print was a fun challenge: exploring what should be which color, cutting our 3 large linoleum blocks so they would line up with each other, and lining up the art and typography once they were on the press.

Printing Process

Each linoleum block had to be lined up, and with lead type on the top layer there was a balance of building the furniture on the press bed to lock everything in.

I greatly enjoyed playing with color on the print. I planned to add red ink in small increments to each run, and it was fun to see how it interacted with the existing ink on the rollers. We also played with a slight split-fountain on the 2nd (orange) run, so each print varies slightly.

Preparing to Print

I cut 3 large linoleum blocks while ensuring that the colors would line up with printing, and set lead type for the quote.